The music was loud in the bar, laughter and drinks were at every table I walked by.
The crew were the stars of show, with stories and theatrics on what happened at the sea.
Some jumped on the tables while others poked the dead guardian with a stick like it was a sword.
Everyone was laughing or were amazed at their stories.
It was fun to see everything from behind like a shadow that sees history unfold.
I slowly walked towards the bar and sat on one of the tall stools.
"A glass of milk please."
The barman was spoked by my sudden appearance but decided to give me the order.
"I thought the great hero was not interested in those lowly parties."
The person sitting beside me was also one of the stars of this party, Captain Mad Siren herself.
"It's not like I'm some kind of noble in the first place, I don't have problems with parties, I just don't like the alcohol."
The whole bar erupted with cheers as one of the drunken men took out their iron sword and put a scratch on the mechanical eye of the guardian.
Should I feel bad about this?
"Then I guess you didn't come here just for a cup of milk. Or perhaps you truly did fall in love with me and plan another proposal?"
She said that while winking at me, or at least she tried, but looked like a blink because of her eyepatch.
"It's going to take more than a wink for me to fall in love with you. Sorry, Captain, my riches aren't so easy to take."
"*Tsk."
I could only smile at her attempt to rob me more than she already had.
It's not like I'm going to complain about it.
What I got from this expedition is way more valuable than what she could ever imagine.
Plus, we got closer in the past few months when we were on the ship.
I can confidently say she is loyal and the best friend of my wallet, so I don't think she would betray me any time soon.
"I came here to listen if anyone knows about the invasion of the Iligers."
"You heard about it as well? It's just a rumor here but I heard they came from the borders of the Stone and Sandstone kingdom on a flying platform. Then, when the army tried to block them, they scattered like foxes. Now they attack different towns and nobody knows what their goal is."
I know what their final goal is, but why aren't they rushing here?
Are they looking for something else first?
"Alexa, what do they need to show you to not get attacked?"
That's the sign to stop the attack of the guardians?
Wasn't my trident enough to stop them?
"Trader...is you monster friend here as well?"
"What? No, this place is too packed for her liking, she must be at home right now building with Redstone."
"Then who are you talking to, another monster?
"...yes?"
"Are you sure you're not a Monster Lord? Because I saw you having more monster friends than human ones."
Hey, just because I have a Witch, a tribesman from another dimension, an Enderwoman, the hero, and a supercomputer that doesn't mean I don't have human friends.... wait this list is weirder than I expected, maybe I really am a Monster Lord.
No!
Bobby is a normal human so that has to count for something.
"Why are you silent all of a sudden, I was just joking around. If you didn't speak with Miss Violet, who else did you speak to?"
"I spoke with Alexa, my flying friend."
"The one who kept stealing items from the crew."
"...yes."
She let out a sigh while messaging her forehead.
"Listen Trader, if you weren't so powerful and rich, I would've thought you were crazy."
At least you're not saying that I'm crazy right now.
"Thanks, I guess. Do you think you can gather more information about the Iligers?"
She chugged the rest of the booze in one go and smacked the cup on the counter.
"Sure, but you'll buy the next drink. Barman, give me one cup of Slime booze!"
The man nodded and quickly poured a cup of green booze to the captain.
I rolled my eyes and paid the emeralds to the man.
She smiled, blew me a kiss, and went to talk with the others.
That took me by surprise, and made me choke on my milk.
Since when do machines know what flirting looks like?
"No, she's trying to get under my skin and steal all of my riches if possible."
"It's only a saying. Anyway, why do you think the Iligers are not coming here?"
The floating angel stayed in silence for a few moments before giving a response.
Why would they search for that?
Wait.
For the past few months that I've been here, I've never seen a trident in public or even speak about them.
Even though they are useful at moving through water at great speeds.
"Could it be, that they don't know what a trident looks like?"
"Can't you craft a trident?"
So nobody in this dimension can do it, no wonder I didn't see it.
Maybe I don't have to worry about it after all, if they don't have the drawings in the end, they would have to fight with the guardians, and I don't think they stand a chance against them.
Especially not against the Elder Guardians.
With that reassurance in mind, I relaxed some more and listened to the gossip around me, while Alexa was scanning people or items from time to time.
After an hour Siren came back with rose cheeks on her face.
"I found-*hik* I found out some information about the Iligers. They recently stole something from the SUN Company and everyone is looking for them. Bunch of hypocrites! They only care about the problem only when it affects them, not when 5 whole villages were blown up."
My blood froze in my veins, realizing why the guards were looking for me.
Maybe they found a trident in one of the SUN warehouses.
Alexa is in danger of being used against humanity if I don't do anything about this.
"Thank you, Siren, that was very helpful, but I have to go now, keep having fun, and be careful not to stab someone."
"Hey! *Hik*"
I didn't sit to listen to her and went back home with hurried steps.
"Yes, I'll accept the invitation of those guards and visit the SUN headquarters. But for now, I should focus on leveling up my Enchanting skill so I can put the Magic Resistance 1* on my armor."
I don't want to tell him that I'm stopping the Piliger from getting to it since clearly the supercomputer wants to have more hands under its control. And Piligers are dangerous now, I don't want to think how they would be with a supercomputer helping them.
"Don't worry I have a plan, maybe I won't be able to level all the way up to max level, but I should be able to get to level 9...hopefully."
"Don't worry, just watch me and you'll get the hang of it."
I visited a few Fletcher workshops and ordered a few printing presses with all the instructions being similar.
And since I gave an order to a workshop and not a person, the whole order should be finished in one day.
Of course, I didn't plan on stopping just there, as I went through the city and did some shopping.
When I arrived home, I built an enchanted room and crafted an Enchanting Table.
I looked at the resources I had and saw that I had everything except enough lapis.
It's very hard to buy those ores in bulk, and I didn't want to steal yet.
Instead, I made a staircase downwards that led me into a cave system.
For the rest of the two days, I managed to get more riches in ores, get the orders back in a box, and level up my Enchanting skill twice.
Even after hundreds of enchanted books, I couldn't get to level 9.
But it was enough that I got Vein Mine 4 for my pickaxe so it's not a wasted effort.
"I was planning on doing that anyway, it's just that I hate restrictions and I want to get rid of them as soon as possible."
I had multiple printing presses now to increase my level of efficiency, but I should've invested more into multiple Enchanting Tables since that's the place where most time is wasted waiting for the enchantments to be done.
But a lot of progress was made nonetheless, and I'll probably continue to do this until MAX level when I get back.
"Let's go to the inn then, but first, let's make you invisible with this."
I took out a splash potion from my inventory and broke it on the Allay heads making it disappear.
Then I took off my helmet and put on my trusty cloak.
Half an hour later I was in the white inn the guards were talking about, and to my luck, they were downstairs eating lunch.
With silent steps, I approached and waited for them to notice me.
"Can we help you with something?"
"I don't know, you're the ones that called for me to meet you."
All of them had their eyes on me, so I took off my hood to see my face.
"Just as they said...he has no nose. I wonder how that happen?"
One of them rudely whispered to his friend.
"So what do you need from me? My friend told me it was something related to Iligers?"
"Yes, we want to invite you to our headquarters at the capital and talk with our boss. We don't have much details, but you'll be compensated for the time you'll spend there."
I raised an eyebrow at what the leader said.
"Are you sure about that? I'm pretty expansive."
The others laughed and reassured me that the SUN company could afford it.
I could only smile trying to come up with the best method to milk them as much as possible.
We got on our horses and left for the capital, and 2 weeks later we arrived.
It was an amazing sight to see, the city was build on top of a huge floating island, with smaller ones on the side.
Below was a huge hole covered by stairs and torches with miners working tiersly like ants.
There were stone bridges that were connected to the small islands, and the small islands connected the main one.
I had to stay for a few minutes to admire this piece of human ingenuity, and even Alexa gave a compliment to the city.
"Welcome, to the Golden City, where all dreams come true!"
The guard spoke with a proud tone waving his hand at his home.
It was pretty impressive so I wasn't going to say anything negative about it.
With the short brake over we climbed on the Stone bridges.